Up On The Roof
by Kristyn The Kid
Summary: And if this old world starts getting you down, there's room enough for two up on the roof. Arizona/Derek. Maybe it's different, maybe it's unreasonable, maybe it's just plain weird. But that's love. The story is better than the summary, I assure you.
1. The Roof

**That's right. I'm still alive. I'm older, wiser and a much better writer. Let the games begin again.**

**I don't know what this one is. If it's well-received, I'd be happy to continue it. If not, let's just say I'm rusty and call it day. Either way, I think this pairing is different and therefore very interesting. Be brutally honest if you decide to review and tell me what I'm doing wrong.**

**Enjoy.**

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><p>One of the few Seattle nights that wasn't grey and murky as supposed to be a good one. But it's never a good night when you lose three kids. What's worse than losing three kids? Well, losing four kids but Arizona Robbins did not go up on the roof to count dead kids. She went up to count stars. The city lights below and surrounding Seattle Grace Hospital seemed to be brighter than usual and the stars were therefore invisible to Arizona's blue eyes. She was sure she'd seen one foreign sun but it turned out to be a plane and that familiar feeling of false assumption was just so consistent with the night she'd had.<p>

Downstairs, wandering the halls of the very same misery-filled cesspool, Derek Shepherd tried to clear his head. Sometimes he thought the luscious hair that sat atop his pretty little head only aided in driving him crazy. Perhaps if he was bald, his dark thoughts could slip away a little easier. More than once he'd considered shaving his head like he did for patients in need of invasive brain surgery. The only downside to that somewhat irrational course of action was the immediate plummet in female attraction he would inevitably suffer. One of the reasons he was so popular with the ladies was the hair. He knew that. It didn't really matter much. His heart remained with one beautiful, twisted, possibly insane intern known as Dr. Meredith Grey.

He knew that she'd never feel the same way. That much was clear when his crush hopped into bed with his now ex-best friend Mark Sloan. And Derek felt really damn childish for having a crush, let alone an ex-best friend, but the heart wants what the heart wants and the juvenile brain hates who the juvenile brain hates.

On that uncharacteristically clear Seattle evening, Dr. Shepherd was in desperate need of a break. Medically and professionally speaking, it had been a rough night. The Chief had observed one of his surgeries which for whatever reason caused Derek to second-guess a gut feeling and consequently screw up something otherwise routine. Another patient, a young guy, ruptured on the table and bled out within seconds. And, on a less professional note, he had entered the elevator to find Ms. Grey and Mr. Sloan in a rather passionate embrace that made Derek contemplate sticking his neck between the closing doors and pray for the end.

He needed some sort of bailout. After a night like that, Derek needed some time to himself. When his break arrived, he considered getting something to eat or maybe even catching some sleep. His appetite had died with that thirty-year-old patient and with the way his luck was going, he'd walk into an on-call room for a nap and find Meredith and Mark blowing off steam in their own way. No, neither of those options seemed appealing to him. He needed fresh air. The main entrance to the hospital was often flooded with broken bodies or recognizable doctors trying to flee. He needed fresh air and solitude. There was only one place where Derek could find both things he so desperately needed and that was up on the roof.

When Arizona heard the door behind her swing open, she cursed whoever dared interrupt her moment of free self-pity. Her hands gripped the railing in aggravation as she looked over her shoulder to view the guilty party. A tired-looking Derek Shepherd pulled himself onto the dimly-lit rooftop, shutting the door behind him and stopping where he stood. He didn't look any more pleased to see her as she was to see him.

"Dr. Robbins," he said cautiously, trying to search the banks of his memory and make sure that was, in fact, the blonde surgeon's name. He didn't know her very well, after all.

"Dr. Shepherd," Arizona responded with a half-hearted nod of acknowledgement.

"I didn't know anyone was up here," the neurosurgeon responded.

"Yeah, well, it's a pretty good hiding spot," she admitted, returning her arms to the surface of the balcony and leaning forward. She stared at the bustling city just in the distance and momentarily wished she could trade places with a less stressed citizen.

"Rough day?" Derek answered, walking towards the railing and emulating Arizona's positioning.

"That doesn't even cover it," she scoffed, shaking her head. After a moment, she looked to him, not moving her body which would need much more than idle chitchat with an alien colleague to stir it. "What about you?"

"As far as sucking goes," he began coyly, exhaling as he did so, "this was one for the record books."

"I'm sorry to hear that," she commented, blowing a lock of hair from in front of her face. The wind picked up a bit, chilling the two unhappy doctors.

"How often do you hide up here, Robbins?"

"Only on the really bad days," she told him. Derek let out another sigh, a puff of pent up, bothered air that was now free to infect the dark, crisp air around them.

"How many did you lose?" he asked quietly, understanding that a doctor's 'really bad day' almost always involved death.

"Three," she stated. "You?"

"Just one," he breathed. He turned back to the darkness and looked at the buildings that seemed so far away. "Just one." Arizona nodded and followed suit, eyes on the busy metropolitan before them.

"Just one," Arizona repeated.

A long while passed where neither said a word. They were both too deep in thought and too busy wallowing in doctoral self-loathing to even notice each other's company. The only thing that broke through their internal walls of regret and wretchedness was the sound of helicopter blades chopping through the otherwise silent air. Both turned simultaneously, using their hands to shade their eyes from the displaced wind that was threatening to knock them over. Seconds later, the door to the roof burst open again. In rushed various doctors and a gurney, all shouting something unintelligible but frantic. Derek stepped forward.

"What do we got?"

"Twenty-year-old male with multiple stab wounds," Miranda Bailey answered. "No head trauma to our knowledge but we'll page you if we need you." Derek nodded and stepped aside along with Arizona who had stopped listening after 'twenty-year-old'.

"I guess our break's over," Arizona remarked as her coworkers unloaded a bloody body onto the stretcher.

"I guess you're right." Derek tucked his hands into his white coat, unsure of what else to say to his new acquaintance. "I almost don't want to say I hope to see you again up here."

"Why's that?"

"Because that would mean that more kids died." Arizona nodded understandingly and watched as the speedy doctors transported the patient into the medical sanctuary.

"Well," she began, starting off for the door, "I at least hope our bad days match up again next time." As soon as the words left her lips, the compassionate cutter was gone, leaving a confused yet oddly intrigued Derek Shepherd alone to watch the helicopter disappear into the night sky.


	2. Maybe

**I received some decent feedback on this one and I had some free time so here is the next installment. Tell me what you think. **

**And since I forgot to mention it in the first chapter, a big thank you to my wonderful little sister for being my editor/ghost-writer. **

**Enjoy.**

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><p>Derek awoke the next morning, trying rather hard to remain optimistic about the day ahead. The familiar difficulty to leave his bed returned when he rolled over to face the cold half of his mattress. Waking up alone always put a damper on Derek's morning mood. Somehow, though, he felt good. He couldn't remember what but something was lifting his spirits. What the hell was it? Oh right, that doctor. The blonde from the roof. What was her name? Robbins.<p>

As he poured himself a cup of coffee, black and practically boiling, he contemplated this.

Why had a brief encounter with a random coworker stuck with him? Maybe he just liked the pleasant companionship. Maybe he was just lonely. Maybe it had just been a long time since he had talked to a beautiful woman who wasn't just trying to dig her freshly polished claws into one of his surgeries. Or maybe he was crazy.

He checked the clock on the stove. He still had some time but he didn't have much else to do besides shower. If he got to the hospital early enough, he could check up on that stabbing victim before the hordes of blood-thirsty interns began to swarm him for a surgery. Maybe he'd even run into that blonde again. What the hell was her name again? Robbins. Arizona Robbins. Damn. He'd have to write that down. He'd only ever really spoken to her twice before the roof. As it turned out, neurology and pediatrics didn't really cross paths much. He figured that was a good thing. Maybe kids were finally starting to wear their helmets.

Arizona Robbins was already cruising around the hallways, literally since her sneakers had wheels on them. She had slept at the hospital on account of a semi-constant 911 page she received in regards to a sickly young lad named Tyler who seemed to be having more trouble breathing than usual. She was teetering on the edge of 'somewhat drowsy' and 'night of the living dead'. Still, she powered through. She knew she had a day off coming up at the end of the week and that was enough to pull her through another day of baby aspirin and vomit.

Sure, Dr. Shepherd had crossed her mind. She'd seen him around more than once. The hospital was only so big. Eventually, everybody ran into everybody. She'd be lying if she said she'd never noticed him. Every woman in the hospital noticed Derek at some point or another. If it wasn't the nurses whispering about how he looked in his dark blue scrubs, it was the young interns swooning over his smile. Personally, Arizona was a fan of his hair. She was especially fond of the streak of grey that stood out from its dark brown surroundings. But hey, Shepherd was barely a blip on her radar screen. True, he was a very handsome blip, but a blip nevertheless. She was far too busy to get caught up in McDreamy's cult following. She was too smart for that.

After checking on Tyler (he wasn't doing so hot), Arizona rolled back to the nurses station on her heels for a new stack of charts. Completely on board her own complex train of thought, Arizona wasn't paying any attention to where her shoes were taking her. Luckily, she tuned back into the real world just in time to switch from wheels to solid ground before a taller individual in a lab coat. The human obstacle happened to turn around at the right moment and witness almost being run down by the blonde doctor.

"Dr. Robbins," Derek said, putting his hand on the arm of the pediatrician to steady her. "Nice shoes." Arizona nearly blushed, embarrassed that she'd almost skated right into one of the hospitals most prestigious surgeons.

"Dr. Shepherd," she said, a smile spreading across her pretty face. Derek's heart skipped a beat. Dimples? How did he not notice that she had dimples? Well, the roof was dark. And she hadn't smiled at any point during their initial conversation. "What brings you to my neck of the woods?"

"I had a consult," Derek half-lied. In reality, one of the interns on their peds rotation suspected a kid had a concussion and paged him 911 while he was in surgery. After rushing all the way to second floor to assess the damage, he discovered the child was completely fine and the lump on their head was from a fall a week before. Since he was already in kiddie land, he figured he could lurk around for a few minutes and maybe run into the very doctor to whom he was now speaking. He wasn't sure why he was lying or why his face was beginning to feel hot but that was the situation he was now in.

"Oh, gee," Arizona said, her smile fading as her expression changed to show concern, "is the kid okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, he's fine," Derek recovered, trying to think of a way to steer the conversation away from his fib. "But how is your day going? Better than last night?"

"Yes," Arizona nodded, taking a chart from a friendly nurse, "much better." After skimming the contents of the pale pink binder, Arizona nodded. "But equally busy."

"Never a dull moment here at Seattle Grace," Derek commented lightly, rubbing the back of his neck. He noticed that a few nurses around the two had stopped working momentarily and had begun watching him. He tried to block them out. Once Arizona finished reading the second chart in her pile, she sighed.

"I have to go check up on a post-op four-year-old," she announced dejectedly. When she looked up and saw the slightest bit of disappointment on the attractive attending's face, her expression lightened. "It was nice seeing you, Dr. Shepherd."

"Please," he began, "call me Derek." Arizona smiled again. Derek's eyes took in the beautiful sight of her dimples once more.

"Okay," she responded, "Derek."

A few seconds of uncertain silence passed in which neither was sure whether to stay, leave, or continue speaking. Arizona, however, hadn't a moment to spare and therefore she took the initiative.

"So, I need to get going," she admitted mildly. "But, uh, maybe I'll see you at lunch." Her statement ended with an upward infliction which made it sound more like a question than a declaration. Derek's face lit up though he tried to hide it behind stoic handsomeness. "I sit over by entrance to the maternity ward. On the north side of the cafeteria."

"Yeah," he responded timidly, "Maybe I'll see you there."

Relatively frazzled by the apparent interest from a high-status and eye-catching man of power, Arizona smiled one last time before spinning around, charts in hand, and wheeling down the colorful hall of the pediatric wing.

Once she was out of earshot, Derek released a breath of anxious air he had been storing in his powerful chest. It wasn't until he turned to his left that his heart jumped again. Dr. Miranda Bailey was giving him an authoritative stare.

"Jesus, Dr. Bailey," he said, scratching his neck. "You scared me." Miranda licked her lips and shook her head, instantly returning to the chart she had been filling out. "What?"

"You," she accused. "Hitting on a peds surgeon."

"I wasn't hitting on-… we just met yesterday. It's-it's not anything," he stammered. He wondered what it was about Dr. Bailey that made people sweat.

"Mhm-hmm," Miranda sighed, scribbling her signature on the bottom of some discharge papers.

"What are you even doing down here?" Derek demanded, still flustered by her allegations.

"I had an appendectomy on a nine-year-old," she answered coolly. "What are you doing down here? Besides flirting with perky blonde, I mean."

"I was-…I had a consult," he remembered.

"Mhm-hmm," Miranda repeated, clicking closed the pen in her hand and dropping it in the plastic cup on the counter. She shook her head a few times, even adding in a 'tsk'ing sound for good measure. "A consult." She chuckled as Derek's face turned red. "And here I thought you were hung up on Ellis Grey's daughter." A few of the nurses giggled. Derek looked at his shoes.

"No, Dr. Bailey," he said, clearing his throat to maintain professionalism. Miranda laughed at her friend's embarrassment and patted his arm.

"Hang in there, Dr. Shepherd," she remarked as she headed down the hallway. Derek cleared his throat again, retrieving a chart from an amused nurse and avoiding eye-contact as he exited the children's ward. Then he began counting the seconds until lunch. Maybe he'd run into Arizona again. Maybe he'd eat lunch with her. Or maybe she would completely blow him off. Well, he told himself as he patiently waited for the elevator doors to open, nothing ventured, nothing gained.


	3. Lunch

**So today I found out that this is the one and only bona fide Derizona fan fiction on the entire sight. That's right folks. You heard it here first. The Derizona craze is coming soon, though. I can feel it.**

**Anyway, I got a couple more reviews and people asking for a speedy update so here you are. Cross your fingers that I can keep up this one-chapter-a-day trend (mostly because if any of you are residual fans from the Catalina days, you know that this is unheard of).**

**I have the damndest feeling I forgot something in this chapter but I think it's time to call it a night.**

**Enjoy. **

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><p>Lunch hadn't been this nerve-wracking since junior high. Sure, Derek had grown into his looks but he had been one dorky looking thirteen-year-old. And now, as the dapper, successful brain surgeon stood at the front of the busy cafeteria holding his tray, he couldn't help but be transported back to the other times he'd had nowhere to sit.<p>

The biggest conflict Derek was facing was the fact that he wasn't sure if Arizona' was an open invitation or small talk made in haste. He shook his head at his own bewilderment. Here was a man who had the ability to crack open someone's skull and reroute their blood vessels around a tumor and he was completely stumped by a seven-word suggestion made by a fellow doctor. The second thing Derek was struggling with was that he had no idea where Arizona was sitting.

Derek had never sat anywhere near the North side of the cafeteria or the maternity ward. He usually sat in the very front at the table unofficially reserved for him and the other less-attractive neuro guys. He sort of considered them his friends but they were rarely good for more than boring medical talk and making him look better by comparison. But now his green eyes sought out someone much more appealing with which to eat his lunch. Just as soon as he could find her.

After what felt like hours of anxious searching, he spotted her. She was on the complete opposite side of where had originally been looking. It was the eyes that caught his attention. He swore they were like blue crystals but immediately reprimanded himself for thinking something so corny. Soon after he identified the correct table, Arizona looked back down at the medical journal she had been reading. Derek wondered how someone like Arizona Robbins was sitting by herself. He'd heard rumors about how cliquey the women in peds were but this seemed ridiculous.

Arizona made the unwitting mistake of looking up from her reading a second early. When she saw Derek Shepherd approaching, she smiled. Derek seemed to be taken aback by her sudden acknowledgement. Despite the sudden heart murmur, Derek played it cool.

"Derek," she grinned warmly, masking her own nerves with a distracting set of simples. "Hi." She was surprised to see him. Attendings didn't often dine with residents. But here he was with the dark blue scrubs and the perfect hair.

"Hi," was his response.

For a brief moment, Derek stood awkwardly beside Arizona's table. He used this uneasy moment to be observant. He examined the tray before her. Her lunch consisted of one of the hospital's greener-looking salads and a covered drink that Derek couldn't ID by looking at it. Since it was a soda cup, he ventured a few mental guesses. Diet Coke, he suggested internally. Or maybe Dr. Pepper. The latter because Arizona just seemed like the kind of person who would get a kick out of a doctor drinking Dr. Pepper.

"Are you joining me for lunch?" Arizona asked, not wanting the uncomfortable decision to be hers. She could face the rejection if he declined this sort of inexistent inquiry. Derek swallowed nervously.

"Yeah, I think I will," he accepted timidly, taking the empty chair across from the blonde. Since his original plan was just to pace back and forth near her table until she took notice and invited him to sit down, he clumsily jumped at this more alluring alternative. Once he was seated, he nodded his chin towards the magazine in her hand. "What are you reading?"

"Oh," she said, temporarily forgetting she was holding the journal. "It's a study on cystic fibrosis in children." Derek was impressed. Most doctors, especially the attractive females, spent their lunchtime gossiping. Here she was reading up on sick children.

"You know, I read a paper that was published in the eighties about the neurological connection to cystic fibrosis. It shines some light on a few things." Arizona listened intently as Derek briefly explained the contents of the paper. Derek was distracted by two things; the way that he had just showed his age with that comment about the eighties and the way she licked her lips while she ate. "If you want to take a look at it, I have it upstairs."

"Maybe I'll stop by later and take a look," she thought aloud. "I have some free time between two surgeries this afternoon.

"Anything interesting?" Derek asked, fixated on the way the blonde was biting her fork. "The surgeries, I mean."

"Well, I have an ulcer repair on a fifth grader," she told him simply. She reached for her cup and took a sip of Diet Coke.

"How the hell does a fifth grader get an ulcer?" Derek asked with a laugh. When the thought hit him that perhaps a child getting an ulcer could possibly be some sort of horribly fatal epidemic he knew nothing about, his laughing stopped. He was comforted when Arizona returned his smile.

"Too much stress at work, I think," she joked, almost flattered by his bashfulness. "But, no, it really isn't that rare. I mean, it _is_ rare but it's not as rare as you're thinking it is."

"I'm a brain surgeon," he said with a laugh, hoping his reminder didn't come off as cocky. "I'm used to the rarities."

The two spent the rest of lunch talking about various surgeries and telling each other medically-centric fish tales. It was amazing how much the energetic pediatrician could get Derek to say. He was usually anything but loquacious. She was smart and a great conversationalist and it would have been unreasonably as well as impossible not to embrace it. It was quite a step up considering most of the women interested in Dr. Shepherd were well-educated nurses who lacked this kind of vibrant and addicting personality.

Once lunch was finished, the two felt a silent and mutual disappointment about parting. Arizona wasn't in any particular rush to return the array of sick children that was waiting for her and Derek would pass up slicing into yet another brain that day if it meant spending a little more time with Dr. Robbins and her dimpled intelligence. Together, the pair walked to return their trays. Now that they were out of distractions, they slowly started off towards their respective specialties.

"So," Arizona began bravely, "this was fun."

"Yeah," Derek smiled, "this was nice."

"Same time tomorrow?" she asked courageously, hopeful that Derek's positive comment a second before was the kind of false reassurance you uttered after a bad date.

"Yeah, definitely," he said with a nod. "Definitely." He was somewhat mortified by enthused his answer sounded. Sensing this, Arizona grinned.

"Okay," she smiled sweetly. She began to walk away but stopped. "Oh, and I'll catch up with you later." An expression of hopeful confusion appeared on Derek's face. "To get that cystic fibrosis paper."

"Oh," Derek remembered dumbly. "The paper, right." Arizona kept her grin and returned on her path towards the peds wing, using the wheels on her shoes to get around the corner. "See you then!" Derek called after her, immediately recognizing and regretting how pathetic he seemed. A few doctors seated near him turned and stared. He closed his eyes and let his head drop, his face turning an unprecedented shade of red. Maybe he really was some kind of idiot.


End file.
